1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a center cluster module and system, and an electrical equipment connector system for facilitating installations in automobiles and other vehicles and for reducing costs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, center cluster modules have been installed in vehicles to accommodate audio equipment. These center cluster modules have been housings for inserting audio equipment components, so that power lines and signal lines have had to be connected to each piece of equipment. This has resulted in complex wiring systems that require much time for equipment installation and are costly.
In addition, each piece of equipment is provided with its own control switches. Thus the driver must lower his or her eyes in order to operate the control switches when controlling a piece of equipment at the bottom of the mounting rack, which is detrimental to driving safety.
Furthermore, the audio equipment accommodated in on-board center cluster modules is being built into single chassis in the interest of lower costs and ease of installation. With this, however, there is little scope for equipment expansion. When purchasing equipment to be installed later, the equipment being added can be installed in the remaining space if more space is available than that occupied by the single chassis system. However, not all add-on equipment is being installed to the body (that is, to the attachment brackets inside the instrument panel).
Moreover, when add-on equipment is purchased from a third-party vendor and installed in the center console, a wire harness must be rigged.
Furthermore, since add-on equipment is not limited to equipment made by the manufacturer of the equipment previously installed, one ends up with equipment switches and displays that are very different in terms of operability, visual verifiability, and uniformity of design, etc. Thus when add-on equipment is accommodated in the center cluster module, equipment operability and visual verifiability suffer, as does driving safety.
Consider a case such as is diagrammed in FIG. 1, where one piece of equipment 403 of size 1DIN and two pieces of equipment 405 and 407 of size half-width DIN are loaded in equipment slot 401. Conventionally, there has only been one slot board connector (not shown in the figure) per tier for connecting DIN-size equipment to a slot board (not shown). Therefore, the two half-width DIN units 405 and 407 must be installed one on top of the other, as depicted in FIG. 1, which wastes a lot of space. In terms of equipment controllability, moreover, it is desirable to install each piece of equipment higher in the rack.
In FIG. 2 is diagrammed the connection between a conventional bus line 161 and housing. A bus line connector 373 is attached to the bus line 161, and a housing connector unit 374 is inserted into the bus line connector 373. The housing is connected through impedance adjustment resistors 375 on the housing connector unit 374 and a jumper line to the bus line 161. In this manner, depending on the mode of connecting various input/output signals to the bus, it is necessary to install jumper wires inside the bus line connector 373.
In FIG. 3 is diagrammed the conventional method of attaching coin boxes. When installing coin boxes 378 and 379 in vehicles not equipped with equipment slots such as described above, it is necessary to use special brackets 377 or the like to make the installation inside the center cluster. This is inefficient.